Despite the tension felt by the plastics recycling market in Europe, new legislation provides reason for optimism. Recycling machine manufacturer EREMA has invested in the very latest technologies in recent years to pave the way for a plastics circular economy. Trade fair visitors interested in the latest processes can discover the company’s extensive product portfolio at Fakuma from 15 to 19 October in Friedrichshafen.
“We see new legal requirements such as the PPWR as an opportunity to demonstrate our expertise. The European recycling industry has the know-how to meet these requirements, which gives Europe a significant competitive advantage,” says Markus Huber-Lindinger, Managing Director at EREMA, in the run-up to Fakuma. The new EU PPWR (Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation) prescribes a significant increase in the proportion of recyclates used to make packaging products by 2030. In other sectors, such as the automotive industry, the European Commission and well-known manufacturers are also calling for a higher proportion of recycled materials. State-of-the-art recycling processes are needed to achieve the necessary quality standards and provide a consistent supply of recycled pellets.
The very highest standards for food-safe packaging
Innovative solutions are needed to achieve the recycling quotas in the food grade packaging sector. Over the past 25 years, the VACUREMA® series of machines has become established for the production of food-safe rPET. EREMA technologies for the recycling of PO materials (polyolefins) have also already been approved by an American food safety authority: the combination of the INTAREMA® TVEplus® with the ReFresher module allows recycled PO pellets from defined input streams to be reused in food packaging in proportions of up to 100 percent. By decontaminating the plastic and removing unwanted odours effectively, the technology opens up further high-quality applications for recycled pellets made using collected post-consumer material. These can be used in the automotive, home and design products, and for sensitive personal care products, for example. In the EU, the permit for food-safe recycled pellets is based on a “novel technology” (Regulation 2022/1616). EREMA supports recycling companies in generating data and evidence for the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) assessment process.
Higher recycling capacities require larger volumes and more versatile processes
As the demand for recyclates increases, so does the need to expand capacities by using larger machines. For recycling PET materials, EREMA supplies large-scale systems with throughputs of up to 6 tonnes per hour. The company has also built machines for recycling polyolefins with a throughput of over 4 tonnes per hour.
In addition to throughput, material-specific processes are decisive for increasing recycling capacities. EREMA’s extensive range of products also includes solutions for compounding, such as the COREMA® series, which combines an EREMA extruder with twin screw technology. PCU TwinScrew technology, which features a direct combination of the patented PreConditioning Unit (PCU) and a twin screw extruder, is also ready to take on challenging homogenisation processes. These machines, as well as the new DuaFil® Compact and various filter solutions, are available for trials at the EREMA Customer Centre and in the R&D lab. “This wide selection of technologies is necessary to achieve an efficient recycling process because the method needs to be matched to the specific polymer, degree of contamination, input material and the application that the recycled pellets will be used for,” explains Huber-Lindinger.
Digital assistance systems increase efficiency and ensure quality
Digital assistance systems also make a major contribution to efficiency in plastics recycling. BluPort is EREMA’s online customer platform that is viewed as cutting edge in the recycling industry. BluPort contains apps for quality control and machine maintenance. The PredictOn app, for example, collects real-time data and enables predictions to be made about upcoming maintenance work, which increases machine uptime and productivity. The Spare Parts Online App makes it much easier to order spare parts. EREMA launched the platform at K 2016. Since then, the number of EREMA customers using the BluPort platform has increased continuously, with the number of new users almost tripling over the past three years.
Visit EREMA at Fakuma: Hall A6, Stand: 6314
Photo credit: EREMA GmbH